For it’s 50th annual Athlete of the Year Awards, Sport BC has produced a powerful list of finalists.
This year’s list includes a pair of Burnaby natives and one New Westminster athlete.
Burnaby’s Ariana Van Der Starre is one of three finalists for Female Coach of the Year, joining track and field’s Brit Townsend and triathlon’s Carolyn Murray.
Van Der Starre is B.C. speed skating’s high performance stream coach. Townsend, a Coquitlam resident, is longtime track and field coach at Simon Fraser University, while Carolyn Murray is a high performance coach at Victoria-based National Triathlon Centre.
New Westminster’s Raquel Tjernagel established three new personal bests in 2015 in the 100-, 200- and 400-metre women’s dashes. The 18-year-old is a freshman at the University of Texas.
Last year she registered a 52.52-second run in the 400m event which at the time stood up as the fastest time of the season in under-20 women’s racing.
It was also a Canadian high school record, and stood just a half-second back of the 2016 Rio Olympics standard qualifying time.
Tjernagel also wrote new high school records in the 100- and 200m for Canadian high schools, with times of 11.58 and 23.34 respectively.
She’s up against golf’s Michelle Kim and swimming’s Emily Overholt.
Burnaby’s Howard Hum, a volleyball official, is one of three nominees for Official of the Year, along with synchronized swimming’s Louise Kennedy and soccer’s Michelle Pye.
In the Team of the Year contest, the Mann Cup-champion Victoria Shamrocks are among the final three. The Shamrocks’ roster included former New West Salmonbellies’ Matt Roik and Rory Smith.
Also up for top team honours is UBC Thunderbirds football squad, which captured the Vanier Cup. The T-birds rallied with a game-winning field goal to upend defending champion Montreal 26-23 for the Canadian Interuniversity Sports title, completing a Cinderella-like season.
New Westminster’s Warren Reece and Burnaby’s Nico Repole were members of the team.
Winners will be unveiled March 10 at Sport BC’s gala award ceremony at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
